Seeds to sow...

[spandit]

Been collecting seeds from around the place and from elsewhere, including some I've been sent by people on here...

Currently have:

• bluebell
• old man's beard
• ash
• gorse
• rosehip
• pignut
• poppy

Not sure when to sow them or in which locations on the homestead but nice to have some new species in the mix, even if some of them are considered invasive by some

 

[British Red]

Pignuts need stratifying - get em in now

 

[troyka]

What's pignut, I've never heard of it?

 

[British Red]

Aplant with a feathery top growth

Pignut by British Red, on Flickr

and a lovely edible tuber - tastes a bit like water chestnut

5 pignut by British Red, on Flickr

Illegal to forage for without landowners permission (since you have to uproot it), so great to grow your own!

 

[spandit]

Pignuts need stratifying - get em in now

Yessir! Should they be sown into bare soil (molehills, for example) and how wet do they like it? Should they be planted near trees or in the middle of grassland?

 

[British Red]

I've harvested them in both meadows and shady hedgerows among grass and cow parsley so I don't think sun matters. Like most tuber formers, lighter soil over clay.

 

[spandit]

Soil sounds ideal here so I'll put some in & see what happens. Could mark them I suppose but it kind of spoils the fun!

 

[S.C.M.]

sowing Gorse? what harvest will that yield? or is this more a companion/hedge plant? maybe I'm thinking of something else... spiky and burns like hell is what I'm thinking of

 

[Goatboy]

sowing Gorse? what harvest will that yield? or is this more a companion/hedge plant? maybe I'm thinking of something else... spiky and burns like hell is what I'm thinking of

Gorse has a few uses, though in some areas it was used as a fodder for animals in lean times of the year until relatively recently.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[spandit]

sowing Gorse? what harvest will that yield? or is this more a companion/hedge plant? maybe I'm thinking of something else... spiky and burns like hell is what I'm thinking of

Flowers all year round. Deters intruders, good screening/cover, burns well... just seemed a shame to waste the seed. Preferable to bramble anyway

 

[slowworm]

Gorse is also a nitrogen fixer, so good for poor soils. I don't remember stratifying pignut seed and still getting excellent germination results. I would protect it somehow, fine mesh over the pots or you may just be providing mouse food!

 

[Goatboy]

Also makes a stunning ice-cream... Hmmm.

250ml milk
450ml cream
250g gorse flowers
6 organic egg yolks
150ml honey


Bring the milk and cream gently to the boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Add gorse flowers and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks with a little of the infused liquid and add to the saucepan
Heat gently till mixture barely thickens.
Add the honey.
Strain through sieve.
When mixture is cold put it into an ice cream maker or into the freezer.
We sometimes leave a few flowers in as they look pretty, or you could sprinkle a few fresh petals on top as you serve.
Makes about 1 litre.

 

[forrestdweller]

Also makes a stunning ice-cream... Hmmm.

250ml milk
450ml cream
250g gorse flowers
6 organic egg yolks
150ml honey


Bring the milk and cream gently to the boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
Add gorse flowers and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks with a little of the infused liquid and add to the saucepan
Heat gently till mixture barely thickens.
Add the honey.
Strain through sieve.
When mixture is cold put it into an ice cream maker or into the freezer.
We sometimes leave a few flowers in as they look pretty, or you could sprinkle a few fresh petals on top as you serve.
Makes about 1 litre.

wish i'd known that recipe in new zealand... (gorse is rather invasive there and grows much higher then in europe...)

 

[British Red]

Makes a startlingly good wine does gorse

 

[Macaroon]

When Gorse is out of flower then love is out of fashion

One of my best loved and most used spoons was carved from a thick peice of Gorse about thirty years ago now, still as good as the day I carved it.

 

[NoName]

Cool

I have been throwing some rosehip seeds around (when preparing tea) and also rosehips...but not with succes yet
Are rosehip maybe also seeds which have to pass through the intestine of birds first?

 

[S.C.M.]

Huh... ground cover and intruder deterrent are kinda obvious, nitrogen fixer I can believe for sure but flowers all year 'round? Maybe the hot weather here has led to a different kind of gorse. I'll have a look at some of the stuff we have tomorrow. I can't see anything eating it either!

edit: I went and had a look at the stuff we have growing - it's got spikes almost an inch long! Must not be the same as yours, and it seems a quite low-growing plant, about waist high mainly, although it may get bigger as it gets older

 

[spandit]

Well, bluebell, pignut, wood millet, ash, old man's beard and dog rose sown today, on a glorious morning. Let's hope some of them come up in the spring

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Gorse grows to about the same height as me round here. I went out to harvest the flowers to make wine with, but after a minute or two of stabbing myself on the thorns, I switched to Broom, which was both growing next to the gorse, and had a wine recipe on the same page as the gorse...

It works as a wonderful barbwire alternative to keep chavs out...

J

 

[spandit]

Same family, it's a legume